The package sorting area of the cavernous FedEx Ground facility near the San Francisco Airport. Seasonal holiday employment is up a bit over last year and FedEx is hiring 20,000 seasonal temporary workers including the FedEx Ground location in South San Francisco. less

The package sorting area of the cavernous FedEx Ground facility near the San Francisco Airport. Seasonal holiday employment is up a bit over last year and FedEx is hiring 20,000 seasonal temporary workers ... more

Photo: Brant Ward, The Chronicle

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Holiday hiring brings good cheer to some

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Holiday festivity begets holiday hiring.

The year-end frenzy of shopping and socializing impels stores, restaurants, caterers, greeting-card makers, shippers and other businesses to bring on battalions of temporary employees during the final six weeks of the year.

While they're usually not highly paid jobs, holiday work often gives people a foot in the door for permanent employment.

"We have many people, including senior executives, who started their first job at Macy's working the holidays in the stores, then became full time and moved up through the ranks," said Jim Sluzewski, senior vice president at Macy's.

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Despite projecting a 4.1 percent rise in holiday sales this year compared with last, the National Retail Federation expects holiday hiring at stores and e-commerce sites to be relatively flat, with about 585,000 to 625,000 temporary workers hired nationwide compared with 607,500 last year.

The online employment site Snagajob, however, surveyed managers who hire hourly employees and found that 12 percent more plan to make hourly holiday hires this year. The outplacement consulting firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. predicts just modest growth in seasonal hiring, as retailers remain cautious.

While data broken out by geography aren't yet available, experts said they would expect the Bay Area's strong recovery to be reflected in seasonal employment.

"San Francisco and San Jose are posting substantial job growth," said Stephen Levy, director of the Center for the Continuing Study of the California Economy. "You see a lot of people in stores and restaurants; spending is up. What started as a tech boom is now broadening to other areas of the economy, and we ought to do better than average for the U.S. in terms of holiday spending and employment."

Some major retailers have boosted their holiday hires nationwide.

Toys R Us is hiring 45,000 seasonal workers for its stores and distribution centers, up 12.5 percent from a year ago. About 4,500 of them work in California, including more than 800 in the Bay Area, said spokeswoman Alyssa Peera.

The nationwide increase was "propelled by new positions dedicated to fulfilling orders generated from our recently enhanced omnichannel offerings such as 'Buy Online, Pick Up in Store,' 'Ship from Store' and 'Ship to Store,' " she said in an e-mail.

Macy's is bringing on 80,000 seasonal workers nationwide, up 2.5 percent from last year and a big jump from 65,000 in 2010. In the Bay Area, where it has 46 stores, the retailer has about 4,700 temps, Sluzewski said.

"The hiring is a reflection of the direction of the business," he said. "It's been a steady progression because our business has been growing over the past few years."

The holidays boost business in other industries besides retail. The surge in online shopping is a boon for companies like FedEx, UPS and the U.S. Postal Service.

FedEx, which will ship more than 280 million packages between Thanksgiving and Christmas - up 13 percent from last year - has hired 20,000 seasonal workers nationwide, including about 500 in the San Francisco area.

"We're up to 13,000 deliveries a day, from our regular 9,000," said Sid Valledor, senior manager at a South San Francisco FedEx Ground branch. In addition, his location acts as a satellite distribution center, with a nonstop barrage of packages flowing on massive conveyor belts en route to their final destination.

With 40 regular employees, his location has seven holiday temps. All of them have proved their mettle and will get permanent jobs, he said.

"The extra money helps a lot," said Henry Garcia, 22, a senior at San Francisco State who's working at the South San Francisco FedEx. "I really like the job."

For online printing site Shutterfly of Redwood City, the fourth quarter accounts for more than half of its revenue as people increasingly send photo greeting cards, said Peter Navin, senior vice president of human resources. The company will hire 2,200 seasonal workers to handle the rush, but none of them will be in the Bay Area. Instead, they'll be split between its two main production sites in North Carolina and Arizona, he said.

Shutterfly's holiday hiring underscores a reality of e-commerce: A temporary rise in online shopping doesn't result in many direct Bay Area jobs other than for delivery companies. That's because e-commerce distribution centers tend to be located in lower-cost areas.